Asmy friend was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused bythe fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small ropetied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that theelephants could, at anytime, break away from the ropes they were tiedto but for some reason, they did not. My friend saw a trainer nearbyand asked why these beautiful, magnificent animals just stood there andmade no attempt to get away.

"Well," he said, "when they arevery young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and,at that age, it's enough to hold them. As they grow up, they areconditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the ropecan still hold them, so they never try to break free."

Myfriend was amazed. These animals could at any time break free fromtheir bonds but because they believed they couldn't, they were stuckright where they were.

Like the elephants, how many of us gothrough life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simplybecause we failed at it once before? So make an attempt to growfurther.... Why shouldn't we try it again?